As Tennesseans begin to prepare for the start of this year’s holiday travel season, travel companies are predicting a busy week across the state despite some major holiday hang-ups.

While Thanksgiving travel often conjures images of gridlocked interstates and claustrophobic airports, it also has a reputation as being incredibly dangerous. More than 800 people were killed in crashes related to drunk driving around Thanksgiving in the last five years, which earns Thanksgiving the title of “deadliest holiday on our roads,” according to a release from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

MADD President Colleen Sheehey-Church is encouraging all travelers to “Make It to the Table” this Thanksgiving and will be joining the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a social media campaign to promote designated driving, public transportation and alternative means to travel, according to a Nov. 17 news release.

“Thanksgiving is a time for families and tradition, and each of us can do our part to prevent the 100 percent preventable tragedies caused by drunk driving,” Sheehey-Church said.

“Thanksgiving Eve is just the beginning of the busy holiday season, and MADD will be out in full support of law enforcement’s efforts to protect our roads through New Year’s Day,” she added. “Our wish is for everyone to make it home for the holidays.”

Drowsy driving also presents a seriously dangerous scenario, according to American Automobile Association Public Affairs Director for Tennessee Stephanie Milani, who suggested that passengers keep a close eye on drivers to make sure they are not having trouble staying in their lane or remembering recent details about their drive.

“Drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as driving while you're intoxicated,” Milani said, “so what we suggest is, if you can, split up that drive time between anyone who is licensed and can drive.

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“After getting only five or six hours of sleep, the crash risk increases by almost two times compared to getting the normal seven hours of sleep,” she added.

AAA reported that it expects over 50 million Americans to travel more than 50 miles to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this week, a 3.3 percent increase over 2016, and that 1.16 million of those travelers are expected to come from Tennessee. Milani explained that the increase in Thanksgiving travel is coinciding with the state’s highest average Thanksgiving gas price since 2014.

“Gas prices spiked earlier this month because of a pretty warm October across the country,” Milani said, “That led to a stronger demand and we also saw some higher gas prices in October, so we are looking at having the highest Thanksgiving gas prices since 2014.”

Still, Milani said that the increase in gas prices, which currently average $2.33 per gallon across the state and could mean as much as an extra $6 per fill-up on average over 2016, was unlikely to deter travelers.

“Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that people don't postpone,” she said. “If they have family that they typically travel to see, they don't easily give up on those traditions, even when gas prices are higher than in years past.”

AAA also reported that air travel is expected to see the largest increase in traffic during the five-day Thanksgiving travel period from Wednesday, Nov. 22 to Sunday, Nov. 26. Nearly 40,000 Tennesseans are expected to catch a flight in the days before and after Thanksgiving, according to AAA, and McGhee Tyson Airport spokeswoman Becky Huckaby warned that increased travel around Thanksgiving is likely to make flying that much more difficult.

“The biggest thing that we do is try to concentrate on letting people know that we will have lines,” Huckaby said. “We will have a longer period of time that it will take from the time you get out of your car to when you get on your airplane, so you want to plan for that.”

“We are encouraging passengers to get here at least an hour and a half before their regular departure times if they're going domestically and about two or two and a half hours before international flights, because we don't want people to get stuck in a longer line because they anticipate the line to be shorter, like it maybe normally is during the regular time of year,” she added.

To make the process a little easier and to help prevent missed flights caused by seemingly endless security lines, Huckaby recommended that travelers download the Transportation Security Administration’s MyTSA app, which offers updates on traveler volume and security check wait times. The info can help travelers going through unfamiliar airports get an idea of just how early they might need to be, she said.

The familiar image of packed airports and frantic passengers during the holiday travel period may seem cliché, but Huckaby advised that Knoxville is no exception to the crowded terminal trope.

“It's our favorite phrase this time of year; pack your patience,” she said. “Lines are going to be longer than you expect, and the difference is that most people anticipate it being busy. They think about an airport being busy, but they don't realize just how busy it can get and what that does to the process of moving from the ticket counter through the security checkpoint to your gate in time to get on your flight.”